As Paul McCartney winds down his North American shows, he talked to Rolling Stone about his seemingly endless excitement for live work, admitting, "I can't imagine ever not touring. It's what I've always done, and I love it so much. There's got to be some kid of physical limitation, but I haven't found it. . . I did that show last night, and I'm thinking, 'Jesus, God, man, you know, you're not 25.' But then the other side of my head is going, 'Yes you are! Get on with it.'"

Since Wings' 1972 debut tour, McCartney has only taken two extended breaks from the road -- from 1980 to 1988 and from 1994 to 2001. He explained that the audience remains the major draw for him night after night: "It's really fun. You've got the audience going crazy, and there's so many young people in there digging it. Half of them know the words better than I do!"

Paul McCartney says that after nearly a half-century in the public eye, he's not surprised that most fans know everything about his history -- including the back-story to all of his music. He admits that being loved by the masses has always meant a lot to him: "It's always been great, y'know, I've always been grateful and y'know really loved the fact that they're taking that much of an interest. And, the truth is, as time goes by now, they know more about it than I do."

Author Christopher Sanford, who wrote the recent biography McCartney, says that McCartney's 1980 pot bust in Tokyo essentially ended Wings' career and sidelined McCartney from performing live for nearly a decade: "He did some thinking in that jail cell. And I know Linda (McCartney) had a tepid reaction, at best, to going out on the road. And I suspect that she probably sat down with him when they got home after that ordeal, and said 'What the hell are we doing here? We don't need the money, the kids don't need to do this, and let's go back to the farm.'"